Touch: Experience and knowledge. (27th April 2012)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bannon, Fiona; Holt, Duncan
• Is Part Of: Journal of dance & somatic practices. Volume 3:Number 1/2(2012)
• Page Start: 215
• Page End: 227
• Publication Date: 2012-04-27
• Subjects: Dance -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Dance -- Sociological aspects -- Periodicals; 792.805
• DOI: 10.1386/jdsp.3.1-2.215_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1757-1871

Abstract

This article explores experiences of touch as an embodied form of social interaction and a contributory feature in the generation of knowledge in dance. Touch has a complex and somewhat problematic position in knowledge formation; prized as the parent of the senses and yet increasingly marginalized for its association with pain and abuse causing it to be perceived as unwelcome and in some cases prohibited. This article is the first stage of a larger programme of research that aims to explore what it is to come to 'know' and to identify what is known through touch in dance. The intention is to critically engage with an empathetic transmission of information as an integral feature of dance performer training, education and well-being. The discussion necessarily highlights the ethical interconnections that exist in learning, from a mingling of 'inside' and 'outside' experiences that inform our understandings of identity, authority, role and difference.